Tag Archives: Omicron

Gaborone, Botswana | Xinhua | Botswana has discovered the new Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, said a government official in a press release issued on Friday. “Only one case of the Omicron sublineage XBB.1.5 has so far been detected in Botswana,” said Malepa Dibonwa, the acting spokesperson in Botswana’s Ministry of Health. The new …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine greatly reduced the risk of Omicron infection among children aged 5 to 15, according to a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday. Children and adolescents aged 5 to 15 were tested for …

Why many experts believe countries may be rashly entering a new stage of learning to live with COVID-19 virus | THE INDEPENDENT | After 2 years of living through a global pandemic, many scientists and policymakers are trying to answer what happens next. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has driven …

Brussels, Belgium | Xinhua | Weaker economic activity in the Eurozone during the first months of the year will give way to a rebound in the second quarter as the Omicron variant proves milder and governments become wary of imposing strict restrictions, said a Dutch banking company expert. However, higher inflation, …

Berlin, Germany | Xinhua | German biotechnology company BioNTech and U.S. company Pfizer have started clinical trials of an Omicron-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate in healthy adults 18 through 55 years of age, the companies said on Tuesday. The trials would evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate, according …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected the global economy to grow by 4.4 percent in 2022, down by 0.5 percentage point from October’s forecast, according to a newly released update to its World Economic Outlook report. Growth will slow as economies grapple with supply …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | Anthony Fauci, top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Sunday he is confident that most states in the country will reach a peak of Omicron infection cases by mid-February. “You never want to be overconfident when you’re dealing with this virus,” Fauci said in an interview with …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | While U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to keep businesses and schools open, some experts wonder if that’s possible given the high infectious nature of Omicron and the lack of adequate measures to combat it, The Guardian said in a recent report. “The economy cannot stay …

Geneva, Switzerland | Xinhua | The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday cautioned and urged for preparedness against concurrent outbreaks of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases during the coming spring. Dr. Maria van Kerkhove from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press briefing that this could happen as population …

Geneva, Switzerland | Xinhua | The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that current COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated if they are to provide continued protection against emerging variants, including Omicron. WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC), a group of 18 experts, said that although current …